Last week I had to take some trash to the dump station near Victor, Montana. I had the back of my 1/2 ton truck loaded. The dump attendant told me the charge would be $45. When I got home I had a letter from Bitter Root Disposal saying that my trash hauling fee, from my home, was $84.88. It seemed as though I had just paid the bill. I checked and found out that I paid $84.88 this last March. They said they will be charging this to me every quarter. Rounding this off to $85 for convenience, it will cost me $340 per year plus the $45.
Now, I was born in Denver, raised in Utah, worked 14 years at a mine near Leadville, Colorado, worked 10 years in Wyoming and came to Montana in 1989 and have been here since. I worked out of Helena, retired in 2010 and moved from Clancy, Montana to Hamilton in 2012, so I’m not a newcomer to the Rocky Mountains.
While living in Clancy, Jefferson County tax for trash haulage was around $80 per year. When I left it had gone up to $120. We had three dump stations in the north end of the county that took trash, used oil, yard waste, metal, cardboard and old tires. There was an attendant that monitored the people dumping and kept people from Lewis and Clark County from dumping as they were being charged out of pocket to dump in their dump. Our county took care of all the trash funded by the tax we paid.
There was person that came to Clancy that wanted to start a “Waste Management” program in our area. Luckily the word got out and public meetings were held where a fellow named Schmitanka tried to convince us what a wonderful thing it would be to have an unsightly trash container in front of our homes on the road (the majority of us were rural) and have someone pick it up for us. We said no and asked him to leave town and not come back.
I guess I’m spoiled, but I’m also appalled that I’m being charged almost $400 per year for a service that could be provided by the county.
Charles Sleath
Hamilton